Through the barbers eyes: Eddie by BarberBruce

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“Next" I shouted as I brushed off the hairs from my previous client

Up popped a young man who sported a tremendous mop of brown skater hair. When he arrived I sat him down and introduced myself.

“Morning, what can I do for you then?" I asked
“All of please" asked the boy
“Really! How short are we going?" I replied
“Urm, short sides and a good trim up top" answered the boy
“That’s a big change" I told him

As a barber there’s nothing I like better than big restyled. This boy, Eddie was his name, has long brown hair that sat on his ears and fell down over his eyes. The hair didn’t look bad by any means but a closely cut style would be so much better.

“What grade do you want to go on the sides?" A asked
“Maybe a 2 or 3" he replied tentatively
“Ok, I’ll start with a 3 and we can go shorter from there"

The boy looked as though he was 15 or 16 and we was wearing his school uniform and he was clearly on his way to school as he was my 2nd client of the day and it was 08:15am.

“Can I take my shirt off?" Asked the boy
“Urm.. why?" I replied
“So that itchy hairs don’t annoy me all day" he said
Now, usually I don’t permit this but as he was the only person in the shop I allowed him to go ahead.

He quickly pulled his blazer off and unbuttoned his shirt before taking it off and putting it down to one side. Next he sat down and I commenced the big cut. I started by fixing the grade 3 guard onto my clippers before brushing his hair down so I could see what was going on in his wild mop of hair.

“Head forward" I requested

The boy did as he was told and tilted his head forwards. As he did so the clippers were turned on and I placed the cold metal blades at the bottom of the hair growth on his neck. I then slowly made the first swipe of the clippers pulling them up towards his crown shaving off a mass of hair in the process. I continued this shaving motion all the way around the head and over the ears cutting away more and more hair as I went. Huge clumps of thick brown hair fell from Eddie’s head onto his body and the floor below.

This shaving act continued until the former hair covered sides were barbered nice and close and cut short. Right now Eddie had short cut sides and a long messy fringe up front. It was time for me to sort his bangs out. First I give them a quick spray over with water before combing them out to see the extent of their length and thickness. I commenced by taking my scissors and cutting the once nose length bang up to Eddie’s eyes. The next ten minutes involved thinning and cutting the bangs until they were no longer a thick messy mop but a neatly barbered quiff. To finalise the look I took the clippers once again and I trimmed Eddie’s sideburns, squaring then off and shortening them. Finally I squared off the neck line at the back of the hair and I shaved off all the pesky sprouting hairs. And Hey Presto! Eddie’s transformation was complete.

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